Lawson's love life hots up with a woman ten years younger than his daughter Nigella

At the age of 79, when most men have long since closed their little black book of romantic dates, former Chancellor Lord (Nigel) Lawson has an unexpected new spring in his step.

Nearly three years after I disclosed he had parted from his second wife Therese, with whom he has two grown-up children, Oxford-educated Lawson, I can now reveal, is to be found stepping out with an elegant beauty nearly half his age — and a decade younger than his saucy TV cook daughter Nigella.

And blonde divorcee Dr Tina Jennings, 40, a mother of four, is intellectually matched to Lawson — she is a visiting fellow at St Antony’s College, where she studied. It was at Oxford that the pair met when he was delivering a lecture on global warming.

Stepping out: Lord Lawson and Tina Jennings spotted together last year at the opening night of Yes Prime Minister

As the estranged wife of New Zealand’s richest man, billionaire investment banker Stephen Jennings, she has, say friends, a bank balance which vastly exceeds Lawson’s, whose earnings these days come from the odd appearance on Newsnight, occasional speech-making and a handful of directorships.

According to friends, Lawson’s divorce from Therese, the former House of Commons researcher he credits with transforming his appearance from Conservative heavyweight to lightweight lord, is due to be heard next week.

He and his first wife, Vanessa Salmon, the Lyons Corner House heiress and mother of Nigella and newspaper columnist Dominic Lawson, divorced in 1980 after a 25-year marriage.

Meanwhile, Lord Lawson has been out and about with his new lady love. At the opening night of Yes, Prime Minister at the Apollo theatre last month, he was proudly introducing Tina to friends as his ‘girlfriend’.

Nigella is said to be rather taken with Tina’s arrival in her father’s life — not least because she is Lawson’s cerebral equal. Dr Jennings is also culturally aware — her Russian art collection led to her appointment as the head of Sotheby’s in Moscow.

She started divorce proceedings against Jennings, who runs Moscow-based Renaissance Capital, in 2006 when she sought £122million of his fortune.

Pleased: TV cook Nigella Lawson, pictured here with her father, reportedly said she was delighted that her father had found a new companion

Says a friend of Lawson, who splits his time between London and Gascony in France: ‘Nigel seems very taken with Tina and he’s keen to introduce her to friends. He loves that she is glamorous as well as a real intellect and the fact that the kids like her makes all the difference.’

When approached, Lord Lawson said: ‘I’d rather not discuss it.’

Thatcher back on top form

Baroness Thatcher was in fine form lunching with friends yesterday at her favourite spot, the restaurant at the Goring hotel, close to her Belgravia home.

All smiles: According to onlookers Baroness Thatcher was in fine form lunching with friends at the Goring hotel

This is welcome news for friends who feared for her well-being after I reported she had to withdraw from last month’s unveiling of Ronald Reagan’s statue at the U.S. embassy.

‘She didn’t look frail at all and was in a great mood,’ a fellow guest tells me. ‘She happily chatted to people who came over to her table and didn’t seem to mind the interruption at all. On the contrary, she rather welcomed it.’

Brook: Impeccable timing

Joker Kelly has gift of the gag

The sight of shapely Kelly Brook scantily dressed as an angel in a deodorant advert was too much for Mohammed Hasnath and Muhammed Tahir, who painted a burka over her curves.

So it will hardly please them to discover the glamour model has added yet another wicked string to her bow — I am told she has a unique talent for delivering the punchlines to dirty jokes.

In fact, so good is Kelly, 31, at cracking a rude joke that her boyfriend, former Scottish rugby star Thom Evans, 26, cousin of radio DJ Chris, confesses he is too scared to tell gags for fear of being upstaged by Kelly’s impeccable timing.

Bad luck continues to dog chef Heston Blumenthal, who is having to shut down his brand-new London restaurant Dinner for three weeks for building work.

The eaterie — at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge — was opened only six months ago and has become so popular that its tables are booked up for weeks in advance.

Unlucky: Despite its popularity Heston Blumenthal is having to shut down his brand-new London restaurant Dinner for three weeks due to building work

But now diners are being told that the restaurant will be closed for most of September for ‘essential maintenance’. A spokesman says the work is merely builders’ snagging following Dinner’s launch in January.

Nothing, of course, could be as bad as the mishap at Heston’s world-famous Fat Duck restaurant at Bray, which had to close for weeks after 400-odd diners complained when they fell ill after eating there.

Made to wait: Phil and Linda Tindall

Royal outrage

There are grumblings in Mike Tindall’s home town of Wakefield about the treatment of his parents when he wed the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips.

Millions watched on television as the bride and groom left Canongate Kirk in a Bentley for nearby Holyroodhouse.

But the groom’s parents, Phil and Linda Tindall, had to stand outside the church gates while all the royals — major and minor — left before them.

It was their son’s wedding, say West Yorkshire locals.

Surely they should have left at the same time as the bride’s parents and in the same style.

Lembit too colourful for most

Lembit Opik takes a typically pompous approach to the battle to be the Liberal Democrat choice for next year’s London mayoral election.

The former Welsh MP — best known for dating a Cheeky Girl — claims he is ‘the only candidate with the profile to match Boris and Ken’.

Not convinced: Lembit Opik pictured here with his young girlfriend Merily McGivern is determined to be the next Boris or Ken but many fear he is too colourful

His literature insists the party ‘can’t afford to look grey against such colourful characters’.

‘The trouble is,’ observes one leading Lib Dem wryly, ‘Lembit’s just too colourful a character for most members’ liking.’

PS... Sir Terry Wogan celebrated his 73rd birthday at a family dinner in London last night, laughing off the spurious Twitter story that he had been electrocuted playing with a Scalextric set at his home.

‘I don’t even have a Scalextric,’ he tells me.

Meanwhile, the Irishman is excited that a long-held ambition to make a film about the life of his hero P.G. Wodehouse is nearing transmission.

The BBC will broadcast the hour-long show next month.

But Sir Terry has one gripe: ‘The Beeb couldn’t afford to send me to New York, where Wodehouse had five shows running simultaneously on Broadway in 1917.’